When Olympic athletes get their routine drug tests, one of the substances that is monitored is caffeine, which has been on and off the ‘banned substances’ list over the past 30 years or so.

(In fact, 2 athletes have been penalised for taking caffeine – Bakhaavaa Buidaa of Mongolia was stripped of his silver medal in judo at the 1972 Games in Munich and Australian fencer Alex Watson was banned in 1988)

Sounds crazy for a substance most people consume every day – I mean, it’s not like taking steroids, is it?

So what’s the problem with caffeine?

Well in Sports Science it’s considered a performance enhancer, and the argument is that it can give an athlete an unfair edge.

But ask yourself this – When you drink a cup of coffee, where does the instant rush of energy come from?

Is it that Coffee is a super-nutritious substance which your body can instantly digest and convert into loads of energy?

Unfortunately not.

In fact, coffee doesn’t really contain much ‘energy’ of its own. What it actually does is releases some of your reserves of energy, and makes them available to you.

So you suddenly feel energised, but then you have a slump, once you’ve spent that energy. Trouble is, you’ve raided your reserves and now have less available than you had before.

It’s like feeling temporarily rich because you’ve raided your savings account. Feels good for a while, but it’s not real.

In Chinese medicine these back-up reserves of energy are called ‘Jing’ and conservation of Jing is considered one of the most important ways to achieve good health and long life.

So… if you habitually reach for a coffee (or, worse, an ‘energy’ drink) to pick you up and keep you going… you’re squandering your savings, plundering your energy reserves, and potentially setting yourself up for crash.

The solution to low energy levels isn’t to mask them with false energy from caffeine, it’s to understand where they come from and then build up your energy naturally and organically.

Then you’ll end up with abundant strong energy and vitality, without having to resort to props.

So, when you’re flagging, think of conserving your precious reserves of Jing energy and pass on the coffee!

(And if you’d like to learn how to really improve your energy levels naturally, and go from fed-up to fired-up, check out my new Supercharge Your Qi training, where I teach everything I know about maximising your energy and vitality, now, and for good!)